Laura Trott claims Britain’s third gold at Euro Track Champs

Olympic golden couple Laura Trott and Jason Kenny took Great Britain’s medal count to eight after respectively claiming a gold and silver in the final session of the European Track Championships in Apeldoorn, the Netherlands on Sunday.

Proving consistency is key in the omnium, Olympic champion Trott never placed out of the top three in each of the six counting disciplines, despite not winning any of them – and needing stitches after crashing in Saturday’s elimination event.

By contrast, Dutch rival Kirsten Wild placed first in the flying lap, pursuit and scratch rounds but lost her overall lead to Trott when she could only finish seventh in the closing 500m time trial.

It was Britain’s third gold of the championships and a second for Trott after she was also part of the world record breaking GB quartet who beat Poland to the team pursuit title on Friday. Dani King, Elinor Barker and Katie Archibald had made up the rest of the team which set a new record of 4:26.556, while Joanna Rowsell contributed to their earlier qualifying effort.

Kenny’s took his silver medal on Sunday in the men’s Keirin. The event was won by Germany’s Maximilian Levy with France’s François Pervis in third.

It was also Kenny’s second medal of the championships after picking up a bronze in the individual sprint on Saturday.

Not to be outdone by their female counterparts, Britain’s male team pursuiters had claimed Britain’s other gold on Friday. Recording a time of 4:02.258, Ed Clancy, Steven Burke, Owain Doull and Andy Tennant led Britain to a narrow victory over Russia.

Jess Varnish contributed two medals to Britain’s weekend haul with bronze medals in the team and individual sprint events – the former with Becky James.

Team pursuiter King also claimed a second medal in the points race, taking a silver behind Wild.

Ireland’s world points race champion Martyn Irvine meanwhile took a bronze in the men’s omnium having duly won the won the points round.

Britain’s Sam Harrison won the closing kilometre time trial in the same competition but had to eventually settle for fifth overall.

Ken Evans

CW: Links to videos ?

Mike

I suppose they could argue that if success is guaranteed, why bother watching. In defense the Worlds RR had the biggest and best British team for years, who could guess they would all fail to deliver?